That's because Japanese society is superior that way: people want to work for the good of their society. That approach would never work in America because the

That's because Japanese society is superior that way: people want to work for the good of their society. That approach would never work in America because the American mentality is "fuck you jack, I got mine". So to make recycling work really well here, it has to be invisible: you need to use automation on the whole waste stream to pull out recyclable materials because Americans are just too lazy, entitled, and downright stupid to recycle on their own. Half of them even think that recycling is a bad thing (similar to how many Americans think the Moon landings never happened, and that the Earth is 6000 years old).